This is an unprecedented clinical trial that researchers from the University of Bristol, in Great Britain, have just launched. For the first time, they transfused two patients with laboratory-grown blood. Not a huge amount, just the equivalent of two teaspoons, but the goal is to see how these red blood cells behave inside the body, and especially how long they last in the body compared to human red blood cells.
How is blood grown in the lab?
To obtain this “artificial” blood, the researchers extracted stem cells from a normal blood donation in order to grow them in large numbers in the laboratory and then transform them into red blood cells. This process takes about 3 weeks and half a million stem cells yield 50 billion red blood cells. These are then filtered to obtain approximately 15 billion red blood cells which will be at the right stage of development to be transplanted, such as explains it to the BBC Pre Ashley Toye, professor of cell biology, who is leading the experiment.
During this clinical trial, at least 10 volunteers will receive small blood transfusions at four-month intervals. One will be composed of regular red blood cells from donors, the other of red blood cells grown in the laboratory. Researchers pin a lot of hope on the lifespan of cultured red blood cells because they are fresh and young, whereas when blood comes from a donor, the red blood cells are naturally of different ages, requiring them to multiply transfusions in patients with rare blood diseases (such as sickle cell disease, for example).
“Regular blood donations will continue to enable the vast majority of blood transfusions. But this lab-grown blood will be able to supply people who need regular transfusions as well as those with extremely rare blood types for whom it is not possible. there is no donor” underline the researchers.
